MYTHOLOGY AND 5.

Ballads - form of narrative verse that can be

FOLKLORE REVIEWER- either poetic or musical; not all ballads are songs.
PRELIMS Many ballads tell stories, but this is not a
mandatory attribute of the form.
EX: Richard Cory – Edwin Arlington Robinson,
What is folk literature?
The Last Request by Denise Rodgers
 Called folklore or oral tradition.
 It is the lore (traditional beliefs and 6. Fables - Short stories that teach a lesson, a
knowledge) of cultures having no moral or a set of virtues with animals as
written language, translated through characters
storytelling and historical influence EX: Aesop’s Fables
articulated later in a literary authorship.
Folk Literature as an Artifact 7. Legends - Stories about historic or quasi-
 It is a repository of stories which are historic people and places which are oftentimes
valuable developed by time, place, and give familiar examples and larger-than- life but
circumstances as a result of orality –the real people
manner of transmission of details,
concepts, and stories from generations to 8. Folk Drama - Human experience repeatedly
generations. told by folk storytellers to prevent these
Folk Literature as an Artifact experiences from being forgotten
 Manifestation of man’s civilization as a
source of information from beyond times 9. Mystery Stories - Engage children to read and
and a lens of man’s experiences find pleasures in stories

Classifications of Folk Literature 10. Animal Stories - Show the bond between
 1. Local Folk Literature animals and humans
 2. Global Folk Literature
11. Adventure Tales - Include clever heroes and
Genres/Examples of Folk Literature dangerous villains during the old times and
1. Folk Songs - Expressions of commonly shared heroes’ success for modern stories
ideas and feelings accompanied by a tune, a
melody, a musical intrument and personal 12. Fairy Tales - Fantastic series of events in the
expression. life of protagonists and ends in a happy ending
EXAMPLE: Leron - Leron Sinta EXAMPLE: Little Red Riding Hood

2. Nursery Rhymes - Stories accompanied with 13. Historical and Educational

repetition, humor and musical language which Fiction - set in a real place, during a culturally
varies from age groups and classifications recognizable time. The details and the action in
(classic and modern) the story can be a mix of actual events and ones
EX: Baa Baa Black Sheep, Namamangka from the author's imagination as they fill in the
gaps. Characters can be pure fiction or based on
3. Myths - Stories about divinities, supernatural real people (often, it's both).
beings and deities about creation, life, death, and
queries with the natural world closely related to 14. Realistic Novels - Called problem novels,
religious stories as they belong to living religions deal with world issues governing mankind like
drugs, corruption, and others
EX: Philippine Mythology Gods & Goddesses
4. Epics - Long narrative poems about the 15. Proverbs - Statements expressing good
pursuits and adventures of legendary heroes deeds and right conduct
EX: Lam-ang
16. Riddles - Propositions to trick one’s mind
3. Allegorical – this theory states that all myths
17. Charms - Magic words or imaginative contain hidden meanings which the narrative
symbols/weapons deliberately conceals or encodes.
SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDYING FOLK 4. Euhemerism – Euhemerus, a Greek who lived
LITERATURE from 325-275 BC, maintained that all myths
 Variation of Human Needs arise from historical events which were
 Pursuit of man, conflicts and experiences, merely exaggerated.
adventures leading to man’s various EXAMPLE: Myth of Asclepius God of Medicine
circumstances
 Explanation of the natural world’s Modern Theories
mysteries 1. Naturalism – In this hypothesis, all myths are
 Uncovering truths and phenomena thought to rise from an attempt to explain
 Articulation of fears, dreams, and natural phenomena. People who believe in this
emotions theory narrow the source of myths by tracing
 Reflection equated with stories like how their origins from the worship of the sun or the
they were sequenced and were retold. moon.
 Imposition of order and system EXAMPLE: Hindu God, Raju – causes eclipses
 Scheme of stories elements
 Aesthetic and entertainment appeal 2. Ritualism – According to this theory, all
 Reader’s response towards better story myths are invented to accompany and
telling. explain religious ritual; they describe the
 Promotion of high sense of morality significant events which have resulted in a
 Division of judgment as to which one is particular ceremony.
good or evil present from folk stories.
Folk Literature Collections 3. Diffusionism – The Diffusionists maintain
 1.True Stories – family stories provide that all myths arose from a few major cultural
accounts of precious family memories and centers and spread throughout the world.
histories which can be passed to later EXAMPLE: Theory of Diffusion
generations.
THEORIES RELATED TO FOLK LITERATURE 4. Evolutionism – Myth making occurs at a
certain stage in the evolution of the human
mind.
Myths, are therefore, an essential part of all
developing societies and the similarities from
one culture to the next can be explained by the
relatively limited number of experiences open to
such communities when myths arise.

5. Freudianism – When Sigmund Freud, the

founder of modern psychology, interpreted the
dreams of his patients, he found great
Ancient Theories similarities between them and the
1. Rationalism – according to this theory, myths ancient myths.
represent an early form of logical thinking: they Freud believes that certain infantile are
all, have a logical base. repressed; i.e. they are eliminated from the
conscious mind but continues to exist within the
2. Etymological – this theory states that all individual in some other form.
myths derive from and can be traced back to
certain words in the language.
EXAMPLE: Myth about Persephone
Sometimes these feelings emerge into
consciousness under various disguises, one of
which is the myth.

6. Jungian Archetypes – Carl Jung was a

prominent psychologist who, while he accepted
Freud’s theory about the origin of myths, did not
believe that it went far in explaining the striking
similarities between the motifs found in ancient
stories and those of his patients. He postulated
that each of us possesses a “collective
unconscious” which we inherit genetically. It
contains very general ideas, themes, or motifs
which are passed along from one generation to
another and are retained as part of our human
inheritance.

7. Structuralism – This theory is a fairly recent

development and is closely allied with the
research of linguist. According to this theory, all
human behavior, the way we eat, dress, speak,
is patterned into codes which have the
characteristics of language. To understand the
real meaning of myth, therefore, we must
analyze it linguistically.

8. Historical – critical theory – This theory

maintains that there are a multitude of factors
which influence the origin and development
of myths and that no single explanation will
suffice. We must examine each story
individually to see how it began and evolved.